This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2012) |
Porto Metro | |||
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Overview | |||
Native name | Metro do Porto | ||
Owner | Government-owned corporation | ||
Locale | Porto Gondomar Maia Matosinhos Póvoa de Varzim Vila do Conde Vila Nova de Gaia | ||
Transit type | Light rail/Semi-metro | ||
Number of lines | 6 | ||
Number of stations | 82 | ||
Daily ridership | 170,630 passengers (on average) (2022) [1] | ||
Annual ridership | 79 million (2023) [2] | ||
Website | Metro do Porto | ||
Operation | |||
Began operation | 7 December 2002 | ||
Operator(s) | ViaPorto | ||
Number of vehicles | 102 | ||
Technical | |||
System length | 67 km (42 mi) | ||
Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge | ||
Electrification | 750 V DC OHLE | ||
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The Porto Metro (Portuguese : Metro do Porto) is a light rail network in Porto, Portugal and a key part of the city's public transport system. Being a semi-metro, it runs underground in central Porto and above ground into the city's suburbs using low-floor tram vehicles. [3] The first parts of the system have been in operation since 2002. [4] It is a separate system to Porto's vintage trams.
The network has 6 lines and reaches seven municipalities within the metropolitan Porto area: Porto, Gondomar, Maia, Matosinhos, Póvoa de Varzim, Vila do Conde and Vila Nova de Gaia. It currently has a total of 82 operational stations across 67 kilometres (42 mi) of double track commercial line. Most of the system is at ground level or elevated, but 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) of the network is underground. The system is run by ViaPORTO.
Metro do Porto S.A. was founded in 1993, and Line A (blue line) between Senhor de Matosinhos and Trindade in central Porto was the first Porto Metro line to open, in 2002. The line was extended in 2004 to Estádio do Dragão, in time for the Euro 2004 Football championship.
On April 14, 2005, Line B (red line) opened. The Casa da Música concert hall (which has a station on the combined ABCEF line) opened on the same day. Lines A and B are the last legacy of a line which once went from Trindade to Famalicão, originally narrow gauge, opened in 1875, completed in 1881 and switched to metre gauge in 1930. (The stretch from Varzim to Famalicão is now a bicycle trail.)
Line C (green line) opened on July 30, 2005, reaching the centre of Maia. An extension to ISMAI opened in March 2006. Line C uses a stretch formerly part of the Guimarães line which joined the current line at Lousado.
Line D (yellow line) proved the most problematic to excavate and opened in 2005. The line runs from João de Deus and Vila Nova de Gaia in the south before crossing the River Douro and passing through central Porto en route to São João Hospital in the north. The São João Hospital and IPO stations were not brought into service until April 2006 due to safety concerns. In October 2011, it was extended to Santo Ovídio.
Line E (violet line) opened on May 27, 2006, connecting the Airport Francisco Sá Carneiro and Campanhã. Several weeks later, the line was extended to Estádio do Dragão. An end-to-end journey takes 33 minutes, with services departing every 20 minutes.
Line F (orange line) opened on January 2, 2011, connecting the Porto city centre to the Gondomar region in the east, this line runs between Senhora da Hora and Fânzeres. [5]
Lines A, B, C, E & F follow the same course within the City of Porto (between Estádio do Dragão and Senhora da Hora). The transfer point between Line ABCEF and Line D is at Trindade in central Porto; from Trindade to Senhora da Hora, the right of way recycles the original Porto-Varzim-Famalicão/Maia-Trofa-Guimarães trunk line.
As of 2007, the total cost of the Porto Metro public transport system stands at 3.5 billion euros - over 1% of Portugal's GDP. The first phase of the project alone, which was led by the mayors of several Grande Porto (Greater Porto) municipalities including Valentim Loureiro as a chairman of the state-owned company, was 140% more expensive than initially planned – a slippage of over 1,5 billion euros. The Porto Metro state-owned company has reported losses every year, reaching a record loss of 122 million euros in 2006. [6] [7]
The Metro uses modern Eurotram low-floor, articulated trams. Flexity Swift LRVs are used on line B, Bx and occasionally line C since 2008, and can reach 100 km/h (62.1 mph). They also have more seats, and can, in common with most modern light rail systems, recover 30% of the total of consumed energy during braking.[ citation needed ] New LVRs from CRRC Tangshan, dubbed CRRC Tram or CT, [8] are being implemented on the network, running since 2023 on line C. [9]
The majority of services run with two LRVs coupled together. The Eurotram consists of four main compartments, two in each carriage linked by short corridors, and also features an articulation between the two carriages. They have a capacity of 80 seated and 134 standing passengers. The Flexity Swift consists of three components linked by articulations, with a capacity of 100 seated and 148 standing passengers. The CT consists of four articulated components, having a capacity of 244 passengers, 64 of which are seated. [10]
The system uses the "Andante" ticketing system. Machines in stations issue and can recharge Andante Azul - blue "Occasional" tickets, while Andante Gold is a credit-card style "Gold" tickets (which bear a scanned photograph of the holder) that can be purchased in Lojas Andante (Andante Shops). Tickets can also be topped up at Multibanco ATM terminals.
The Porto Metro operates on a proof-of-payment system. Tickets must be validated before travel by scanning them in front of the yellow machines located in stations. A validated occasional ticket allows for unlimited travel within a specified time period, currently 1 hour for the minimum 2-zone ticket, and longer as the number of valid zones increases. The gold passes allow unlimited travel within a pre-defined area, and are available in "anytime" or cheaper "10/16" (off-peak) versions. There is also a daily ticket, known as Andante 24 that allows the user to make unlimited trips within a given day in the zones chosen. For example, a Z3 (3-zone) ticket is valid for 3 zones in any direction of travel from the first validated zone. So, to cover all of the Metro, except the northernmost part of Line B (zones VCD3 and PV_VC), a Z4 ticket is needed, provided it is validated in zone PRT1.
There are no faregates within the Metro; instead, groups of fare inspectors randomly check tickets with hand-held scanners. The current penalty for travelling without a validated ticket is €120.
The metro uses the same zoning system as the majority of public transport providers in the Porto metropolitan area, which is divided by counties, and further divided into numbered sub-zones (for example, VCD3 is the third area of the Vila do Conde county). The PRT1 zone in central Porto is effectively the area contained within the VCI (Via Cintura Interna) inner ring-road, while zones PRT2 and PRT3 are the areas between the VCI and the Estrada da Circunvalação outer ring-road. [ citation needed ]
The Andante system is being rolled out across the entire Porto public transit network. STCP bus routes and some other bus routes currently accept Andante and the intention is for the entire bus, metro and suburban train network to become integrated. The same ticket cannot be used on downtown Porto trams and the cable car (Funicular dos Guindais). The Andante Azul that tourists typically use are not valid, though the Andante Gold loaded with monthly tickets may be accepted.[ citation needed ]
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Metro do Porto | |||||
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Line | Length | Stations | Opened | Equipment | |
Estádio do Dragão – Senhor de Matosinhos | 15.6 km (9.7 mi) | 23 | 7 December 2002 | Bombardier Flexity Outlook (Eurotram) | |
Estádio do Dragão – Póvoa de Varzim | 33.6 km (20.9 mi) | 35 | 13 March 2005 | Bombardier Flexity Swift | |
Campanhã – ISMAI | 19.6 km (12.2 mi) | 24 | 30 July 2005 | ||
Hospital São João – Santo Ovídio | 9.2 km (5.7 mi) | 16 | 18 September 2005 | Bombardier Flexity Outlook (Eurotram) | |
Trindade – Aeroporto | 13.1 km (8.1 mi) | 21 | 27 May 2006 | ||
Fânzeres – Senhora da Hora | 17.4 km (10.8 mi) | 24 | 2 January 2011 | ||
Ribeira – Batalha | 0.3 km (0.19 mi) | 2 | 19 February 2004 | Guindais Funicular |
Line A | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Line A or the Blue Line is the main and, historically, most important of the five Porto Metro lines. It has 23 stations.
The line was opened between Trindade and Senhor de Matosinhos on 7 December 2002, by then Prime Minister Barroso. Until the end of 2002 travel was free of charge to allow users to familiarize themselves with the new light rail line. On June 5, 2004, on the occasion of the Euro 2004 European Football Championship, the section between Trindade and Estádio do Dragão was opened.
Service runs every 10 minutes between 07:00 and 20:00 between Senhor de Matosinhos and Estádio do Dragão, with some trips extended to Fânzeres on Line F. Between 6:00 and 7:00 and after 20:00 the frequency is 15 minutes. After 21:00 services only run between Senhor de Matosinhos and Trindade.
Flexity Outlook Eurotrams number 001–072 service the line.
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Line B or the Red Line has 35 stations and is the longest line of the system. The line reuses, for almost its entire length, the route of the old Póvoa Line, which connected Trindade to Póvoa de Varzim. Line B was Porto Metro's second line to open. Initially the line only ran between Estádio do Dragão and Senhora da Hora, thus sharing the route with Line A. On March 13, 2005, an extension was opened between Senhora da Hora and Pedras Rubras. On March 18, 2006, after successive delays, the final section to Póvoa de Varzim was officially inaugurated.
The line has two types of services between Póvoa de Varzim and Estádio do Dragão: regular, which stops at all stations; and the Bx express, which only stops at Portas Fronhas, Vila do Conde, Varziela, Mindelo and Pedras Rubras, between Póvoa de Varzim and Senhora da Hora. From early summer 2011 the express service was expanded to operate daily.
In July 2016, Porto Metro announced that an additional infill station, Modivas Norte, will be added at The Style Outlet. The work is financed 50% by the mall management and will cost a total of €1.2 million. [13] Although no extensions are planned, consideration was given to use the abandoned Famalicão branch to reach Barreiros, near Avenida 25 de Abril, via Mourões. Beyond Póvoa de Varzim the right-of-way has been converted into a cycle path in order to preserve the branch.
Line C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Metro do Porto company also operates the Funicular of Guindais, a cable-car system that was originally built in 1891 and was recently remodelled. It connects the riverside area of Ribeira to higher ground at Batalha, near the São Bento station.
Póvoa de Varzim is a Portuguese city in Northern Portugal and sub-region of Greater Porto, 30 km (18.6 mi) from its city centre. It sits in a sandy coastal plain, a cuspate foreland, halfway between the Minho and Douro rivers. In 2001, there were 63,470 inhabitants, with 42,396 living in the city proper. The city expanded southwards, to Vila do Conde, and there are about 100,000 inhabitants in the urban area alone. It is the seventh-largest urban agglomeration in Portugal and the third largest in Northern Portugal.
Vila do Conde is a municipality in the Norte Region of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 79,533, in an area of 149.03 km2. The urbanized area of Vila do Conde, which includes the parishes of Vila do Conde, Azurara and Árvore, represent 36,137 inhabitants. Vila do Conde is interlinked to the north with Póvoa de Varzim, forming a single urban agglomeration which is a part of the Porto Metropolitan Area. The town is on the Portuguese Way of the Camino de Santiago.
The Porto Metropolitan Area is a metropolitan area in northern Portugal centered on the City of Porto, Portugal's second largest city. The metropolitan area, covering 17 municipalities, is the second largest urban area in the country and one of the largest in the European Union, with a population in 2021 of 1,737,395 in an area of 2,040.31 km².
Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport or simply Porto Airport is an international airport near Porto (Oporto), Portugal. It is located 11 km (6.8 mi) northwest of the Clérigos Tower. Its location is split between the municipalities of Maia, Matosinhos and Vila do Conde. The airport is run by ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal and is currently the second-busiest in the country, based on aircraft operations; and the second-busiest in passengers, based on Aeroportos de Portugal traffic statistics, after Lisbon Airport and before Faro Airport. The airport is a base for easyJet, Ryanair, TAP Air Portugal and its subsidiary TAP Express.
Trindade is a station on the Porto Metro system in Porto, Portugal and a former passenger rail station on the Linha do Porto à Póvoa e Famalicão and Linha de Guimarães of the Comboios de Portugal rail company.
Póvoa de Varzim' is served by a transportation network that employs maritime, aerial and terrestrial travel. The terrestrial access infrastructure is composed of national motorways (freeways), the national roads system, and light rail metro. These infrastructures and the airport, bus terminal, marina and harbour are daily used by commuters.
A native of Póvoa de Varzim in Portugal is called a Poveiro which can be rendered into English as Povoan. According to the 2001 Census, there were 63,470 inhabitants that year, 38 848 (61.2%) of whom lived in the city. The number goes up to 100,000 if adjacent satellite areas are taken into account, ranking it as the seventh largest independent urban area in Portugal, within a polycentric agglomeration of about 3 million people, ranging from Braga to Porto.
The Castelo da Póvoa, also Fortress of Póvoa de Varzim, officially Fortaleza da Nossa Senhora da Conceição or Nossa Senhora da Conceição Fortress, is a Portuguese fortress in Póvoa de Varzim rebuilt during the reigns of Peter II and John V to defend the town from privateers, in the site of an earlier fort known as "Forte de Torrão". It is considered a listed property of Public Interest in Portugal.
Senhora da Hora is a former civil parish in the municipality of Matosinhos in the Greater Porto area, Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish São Mamede de Infesta e Senhora da Hora. It was promoted from town (vila) to city (cidade) status on 12 June 2009. It lies just north of the Porto city limits and is densely populated. It is a major suburban habitational area with many houses and some commerce.
Matriz Church of Póvoa de Varzim, also Nossa Senhora da Conceição Parish Church is the Mother Roman Catholic church in Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal. The temple is located in Praça Velha square, in Bairro da Matriz quarter. The church is dedicated to the Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Nossa Senhora da Conceição in Portuguese, the main patron saint of Póvoa de Varzim.
The 2009–10 Taça da Liga was the third edition of the Taça da Liga, also known as Carlsberg Cup for sponsorship reasons. The first matches were played on 1 August 2009. The final was played on 21 March 2009, with Benfica defeating Porto 3–0 to win their second Taça da Liga. The final was played at the Estádio Algarve, Faro.
Largo das Dores or Dores Square is a square in Póvoa de Varzim city center in Portugal. Part of the earliest old town of Póvoa de Varzim, this area is listed by City Hall as heritage site. With about 11.000 square meters, its most noticeable features are its two churches, located in the sites of ancient chapels, one of which was the main church of the city.
The tram system of Porto in Portugal is operated by the Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos do Porto (STCP) and currently has three regular tram routes with 30-minute headways. All are heritage tram routes, as they use vintage tramcars exclusively, and should not be confused with the modern Porto Metro light rail system.
Ramal de Matosinhos, originally called Ramal de Leixões, was a metre-gauge railway line which connected the stations of Senhora da Hora, on the Linha do Porto à Póvoa e Famalicão, to the Port of Leixões, in Portugal. It was built in 1884 to connect the port to the São Gens quarry. Later, it was adapted to passenger and freight transport. Commercial service began on the 6 May 1893. The line was closed on 1 July 1965. In the 2000s, part of the trackbed was used for the construction of Porto Metro Line A.
Linha do Porto à Póvoa e Famalicão was a railway line in Portugal, which connected Porto-Trindade to Póvoa de Varzim and Famalicão. The first section, from Porto-Boavista to Senhora da Hora, was opened on 1 October 1875, having been the first narrow-gauge line in the country. It was completed on 12 June 1881.